Judith “Elise” Hannigan still remembers the words she scribbled onto a note card for a nervous student preparing to take the Advanced Placement English exam: “You’ll do on the test exactly as well as you put in the effort to do.”

Years later, that same student told her the simple message carried him through college, into his career and even into his own classroom as a teacher at Keaau High School on Hawaii island.

“That’s what I call ripples — those daily little things you do that could impact a student’s life,” Hannigan said. “You won’t see the waves until years and years later. … It’s really gratifying to know at the end of the day that I might have made a difference.”

The veteran English teacher, mentor and Freshman Academy coordinator at Keaau High was named 2026 Hawaii State Teache

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